Vanessa Bryant trial over helicopter crash photos delayed in graphic court meeting

Warning: This story contains descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.

LOS ANGELES — Vanessa Bryant's upcoming trial against Los Angeles County has been pushed back at least three weeks after a federal judge held a pretrial conference here Friday to help streamline a complex and graphic case involving photos of dead bodies, including those of her late husband, Kobe.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said scheduling issues led him to move the trial date from July 26 to at least mid-August. He also expressed frustration about the voluminous back-and-forth arguments in the case before telling the attorneys he wanted to crack down on the length of the trial.

“That’s the problem with you folks,” Walter said to one of the attorneys here in court. “You keep raising these red herrings that are just … It’s not the way to try the case. This case should be streamlined. It should be presented with good counsel, and you should eliminate these squabbles that are meaningless.”

Walter told them a "seven-day estimate is going to be a sufficient amount of time to put on your case" for trial. The trial previously was estimated to last several weeks.

Vanessa Bryant, widow of the NBA legend, sued the county in September 2020, accusing county fire and sheriff’s department employees of improperly taking and sharing photos of her dead husband and daughter, Gianna, from the scene of their fatal helicopter crash in January 2020.

She has not publicly shown a willingness so far to settle the case, keeping it headed for a civil trial that could turn into a public spectacle full of gruesome details and renewed grief. That became apparent Friday when attorneys referenced descriptions about “guts on a bush” and a picture of “intestines lying in the vegetation” in relation to one of the crash victim’s remains.

“Trial will require Mrs. Bryant to relive horrific events, hear disturbing testimony regarding photos of her loved ones’ remains, and testify about her emotional distress,” her legal team acknowledged in court documents filed June 27.

Judge wants trial split in two

By pursuing the case to trial, she is seeking damages to remedy violations of her Fourteenth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, as well as damages for negligence and invasion of privacy under California state law.

Judge Walter said Friday he wanted to split Bryant’s trial into two parts to help make it easier for the jury. Part one would determine the federal issue of whether her rights were violated under the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Then a new trial in state court could come after that to address those claims under state law.

In its defense, the county noted that no such photos were posted on the internet and instead were deleted to prevent public dissemination at the suggestion of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

The sheriff testified in a pretrial deposition that an internal inquiry revealed the crash-scene images went to “28 devices” among sheriff’s department personnel. But the county has argued they were not “publicly disseminated” beyond county personnel, except for a deputy trainee who showed graphic photos at a bar two days after the crash.

The county therefore believes her lawsuit is overblown and without legal merit but still has expressed willingness to settle with Bryant in an effort to stop the expensive litigation and avoid the uncertainty of a jury trial. In October, the county agreed to pay $1.25 million each to two other families who also sued the county about the photos after losing loved ones in the same crash.

Gruesome descriptions

Kobe and Gianna Bryant were among nine who died in the crash, including the wife and daughter of Chris Chester, who also is suing the county over photos from the crash scene. Like Vanessa Bryant, Chester has not settled his case. He also is headed for trial and was represented in court Friday by attorney Jerome Jackson.

The judge said he would decide soon whether Chester’s case would be combined with Bryant’s into one trial or whether they would be tried separately, with Chester’s trial starting first in mid-August, followed by Bryant’s in late August.

The judge also asked Chester’s attorney about the photographic evidence in relation to his client’s deceased family members, leading to a graphic sequence.

“There were certain specific findings of photographs of specific remains that could only be Mrs. Chester’s,” Jackson told the judge. “No one else suffered the injuries she did.”

An attorney for the county, Jason Tokoro, said the referenced descriptions “do not identify either of the Chester victims.”

“What I believe Mr. Jackson may be referring to … there are some descriptions of quote-unquote 'guts on a bush,' ” Tokoro said. “He believes that is (evidence for) his client.”

The photos case is separate from a different lawsuit filed by Bryant and the other crash victims’ families against the company that operated the doomed helicopter. In that case, the families reached a confidential settlement with the company to end the lawsuits last year.

What Bryant wants

In the photos case, Bryant’s attorney, Luis Li, said she seeks “accountability,” which doesn’t necessarily mean money. Li appeared in court Friday via Zoom and told the judge “there is more to the verdict than the dollar amount” such as a “public finding” of liability against the county defendants.

Her lawsuit states she wants to “make an example” of the deputy defendants even after several county fire employees already faced internal discipline for their misuse of the photos. Sheriff’s deputy Joey Cruz also was suspended after the incident at the bar but remains a named defendant in Bryant’s lawsuit, along with three other deputies.

In response to the scandal in 2020, the state of California even enacted a new law that made it a crime for first responders to take unauthorized photos of dead people at the scene of an accident or crime.

That has not been enough for Bryant, however. Her case now could end up being tried in two parts – one trial in federal court and another in state court if she chooses to pursue it.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kobe Bryant's widow, Vanessa, has trial over graphic photos delayed